As Europe Grasps for Answers, Migrants Continue on the Move – New York Times

Slide Show | Migrants on the Move Across Europe The decision by Austria and Germany to throw open their borders and take in thousands of refugees does not seem to have stilled the movement or refugees across the continent.

By RICK LYMAN and ALISON SMALE

September 6, 2015

HEGYESHALOM, Hungary — Throughout the day on Sunday, train after packed train arrived at this border town from Budapest, the passengers smoothly shifting to a gleaming Austrian train on the opposite side of the platform and whisking on to Vienna and beyond — 13,000 of them in the first 36 hours after Hungary allowed throngs of refugees and migrants to travel toward Germany.
But that is not the end. Thousands of migrants continue to flow through the Balkans toward Hungary every day, rapidly approaching its southern border with Serbia, government officials said. Two Greek ferries carrying more than 4,000 migrants were scheduled to land Sunday in Athens, a first stop on the migrant trail through the Balkans.
Despite cheers of welcome in Germany, and tears of relief from weary migrants, it remained unclear how Europe would deal with successive waves of migrants, which humanitarian groups have assured are on the way, perhaps for months or even years, until the wars, poverty and other underlying causes of the dislocations have abated.
On Sunday, Pope Francis called upon Catholic parishes and religious communities to take in the refugees, and Germany has called for a quota system to distribute the refugee population evenly throughout Europe.

But the European Union remains deeply divided over what should be done with the refugees, a debate that has strained relations and threatened the 28-nation bloc’s proud policy of open borders.
Far-right politicians, mostly quiet so far, found their voice on Sunday with Marine Le Pen of France, the National Front leader, complaining that a widely dispersed photograph of a drowned child refugee from Syria that had shocked the world was being used to make Europeans “feel guilty.”
A gathering of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Sunday produced only more discord. More talks are scheduled for this week. Germany, which has admitted by far the largest number of migrants — it expects to accept 800,000 this year — has called upon other nations to accept more, but found much resistance, especially in Eastern Europe.
“We have been facing this challenge for several months, and we continue to take …Read More